Mallow family plants for bees
Lime trees above all — the heaviest single nectar flow available to a northern European colony, and one that lasts a fortnight.
Why this family matters
Malvaceae now includes the limes, and lime is the reason the family matters here. A mature lime in full flower is one of the largest concentrated nectar sources in the temperate world, audible from the ground, and it produces the distinctive minty-green linden honey. The rest of the family — hollyhock, tree mallow, cotton — carries the mallow flower proper: a wide open bowl with a central column of stamens and pollen so abundant that bees emerge from it visibly coated.
When it flowers
Lime is a June-and-July tree, narrowly, and the flow is famously weather-dependent. Hollyhock and tree mallow run June to September and September to October respectively, which extends the family usefully past the lime.
Which bees it serves
Lime is worked by honey bees and bumblebees in enormous numbers, and nectar flow is strongly diurnal — heaviest in the afternoon. Hollyhock and mallow pollen grains are large and spiny and are collected by several specialist solitary bees.
Worth knowing before you plant it
Dead bumblebees are commonly found beneath lime trees, usually silver lime, and the cause is contested — starvation late in the flow is the better-supported explanation rather than toxicity. It is worth knowing about because the sight prompts a lot of incorrect conclusions.
Mallow family plants in the catalogue
- LimeTilia cordataJune to July. Nectar very high, pollen moderate.Major honey crop
- CottonGossypium hirsutumJune to September. Nectar high, pollen high.Major honey crop
- BaobabAdansonia digitataOctober to December. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
- Tree mallowMalva arboreaJune to October. Nectar high, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- HollyhockAlcea roseaJune to September. Nectar high, pollen very high.Not a honey source
- DurianDurio zibethinusFebruary to April. Nectar high, pollen high.Minor honey crop
What this group covers
10 of 12 months have something in flower. Nectar and pollen are counted separately and a month counts only where at least one plant offers that resource at moderate value or better — a plant in flower is not the same as a plant worth visiting.
| Month | In flower | Nectar | Pollen |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | nothing | No | No |
| February | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| March | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| April | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| May | nothing | No | No |
| June | 4 | Yes | Yes |
| July | 4 | Yes | Yes |
| August | 3 | Yes | Yes |
| September | 3 | Yes | Yes |
| October | 2 | Yes | Yes |
| November | 1 | Yes | Yes |
| December | 1 | Yes | Yes |
What this group does not cover
Nothing in flower: January, May. Planting only from this group would leave those months empty.
Bees these plants are recorded with
Taken from the relationships on each plant record. These are the well-attested associations rather than an exhaustive list of visitors, so treat the number as a floor.
Honeys from these plants
- Linden honeyFresh and cooling — mint, balsam and lime blossom, with a clean herbal sharpness no other pale honey has.
- Bashkir linden honeyIntensely aromatic with the mentholated, faintly medicinal lift characteristic of lime, over a clean sweetness — more perfumed than most people expect from so pale a honey.
- Urban honeyVaries enormously and is frequently more complex than a rural multifloral, because the flowering succession is longer and the species mix wider.
- Siberian taiga honeyComplex and warm with a herbal lift over caramel, and a density that comes directly from the low moisture — thick, concentrated and long on the palate.
- Basswood honeyIntensely aromatic with a mentholated, faintly medicinal lift over a clean sweetness — one of the most distinctive American honeys and among the most divisive.
- Cotton honeyMild and clean with a faint green-vegetal note and very little else — a background honey.
- Baobab honeyWarm and mildly tangy with a distinct citrus-sherbet lift over caramel — brighter and more acidic than most African honeys and genuinely reminiscent of the tree's fruit.
- Durian honeyPungent, savoury and unmistakably related to the fruit — a sulphurous undertone over dark caramel. It divides opinion as sharply as durian itself.
Other families
- Daisy family
- Mint family
- Rose family
- Pea family
- Honeysuckle family
- Heather family
- Buttercup family
- Myrtle family
- Cabbage family
- Borage family
- Carrot family
- Onion family
- Buckthorn family
- Maple and horse chestnut family
- Sapodilla family
- Plantain family
- Citrus family
- Protea family
- Primrose family
- Asparagus family
- Currant family
- Elder and viburnum family
- Pine family
- Cashew and mango family
- Palm family
- Ivy family
- Oak and chestnut family
- Leatherwood family
- Spurge family
Plan with these
- Flowering calendar
What should I plant so that something is always in flower for bees?
- Bee-friendly garden planner
What should I plant in the space I actually have?
- Plant recommendation tool
Which plant fills this specific gap?